“The goal is not just to hire people who need a job. It’s to hire people who believe in what you believe…If you hire people just because they can do a job, they will work for your money. But if you hire people who believe what you believe they will work for you with blood, and sweat, and tears.” Simon Sinek, How Leaders Inspire Action.
I have mentioned to a number of you previously that when I began Concord Professional Development I wanted to come up with a tag line that I thought would best summarize what I was trying to do and why. What I finally settled on was, “From Compliance to Commitment” because it succinctly stated what I believed was at the heart of a great organization. Compliance is important. Knowing what the expectations are and being able to meet them are fundamental to any setting. But if compliance is all you aim for, then that is all you will ever get. And a simple emphasis on compliance can too easily lead to a ‘just do enough to get by’ mentality which seldom if ever leads to greatness.
I think that is essentially what Sinek is saying in the above quote. You can spend a great deal of energy finding people who will meet the requirements and expectations of a job, but what really makes a team excel is not compliance, but a commitment to the vision and core values of that team, or of the larger organization that team is a part of. And Sinek’s point is that there is a significant difference between the two.
Over the past few months I have been sending out comments on the key aspects of building a high performance team. At the very foundation is trust, and in a trusting environment constructive conflict has a chance to happen. And when these two elements are in place there is a much greater opportunity of creating clarity and ‘buy in’ in regards to team values, objectives, and goals. In other words commitment grows much better, quicker, and stronger when people really want to be where there are and believe in what they are doing.
I genuinely believe that most of us want to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. I talk to many who seem rather jaded about their work – it’s just a means to pay the bills. But great organizations find a way to provide much more than this. They give their people something to truly commit themselves to and when they do they are generally rewarded with effort that far exceeds the expectation of a paycheque.
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Blood, Sweat, And Tears
I have mentioned to a number of you previously that when I began Concord Professional Development I wanted to come up with a tag line that I thought would best summarize what I was trying to do and why. What I finally settled on was, “From Compliance to Commitment” because it succinctly stated what I believed was at the heart of a great organization. Compliance is important. Knowing what the expectations are and being able to meet them are fundamental to any setting. But if compliance is all you aim for, then that is all you will ever get. And a simple emphasis on compliance can too easily lead to a ‘just do enough to get by’ mentality which seldom if ever leads to greatness.
I think that is essentially what Sinek is saying in the above quote. You can spend a great deal of energy finding people who will meet the requirements and expectations of a job, but what really makes a team excel is not compliance, but a commitment to the vision and core values of that team, or of the larger organization that team is a part of. And Sinek’s point is that there is a significant difference between the two.
Over the past few months I have been sending out comments on the key aspects of building a high performance team. At the very foundation is trust, and in a trusting environment constructive conflict has a chance to happen. And when these two elements are in place there is a much greater opportunity of creating clarity and ‘buy in’ in regards to team values, objectives, and goals. In other words commitment grows much better, quicker, and stronger when people really want to be where there are and believe in what they are doing.
I genuinely believe that most of us want to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. I talk to many who seem rather jaded about their work – it’s just a means to pay the bills. But great organizations find a way to provide much more than this. They give their people something to truly commit themselves to and when they do they are generally rewarded with effort that far exceeds the expectation of a paycheque.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 14th, 2011 at 1:01 pm and is filed under Comments. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.